Web pages or individual elements on these pages are automatically refreshed or reloaded by a browser application after a given period of time. For example, a web page can contain an attribute that calls for automatically refreshing the page and another attribute that sets the amount of time that elapses until the refresh command occurs, such as ten seconds. This can be done, for example, to refresh time-sensitive content, such as the headlines or breaking news on a news website, updated bidding information on an auction website, or the start of ticket sales on an online marketplace. This can also be done to serve multiple advertisements to a user using a browser application during the visitation of a particular web page.
The automatic refreshing or reloading of advertisements, however, can be problematic for brand managers, ad networks, publishers, advertisers, and/or advertising agencies (collectively referred to herein as “advertisers”). For example, an auto-refreshed advertisement, while placed in a viewable area on a browser application, may correspond to an absent user. As a result, with the absent user, the browser application can continue to auto-refresh, thereby loading additional paid impressions that are never actually viewed by the user. In another example, a web page can have a very short refresh time (e.g., less than thirty seconds) that does not provide the user of the browser application with sufficient time to be engaged by the displayed advertisement. While these advertisements may be viewed by the user, such advertisements tend to be less effective. In yet another example, it is not ideal for the user to view and/or be engaged with an advertisement associated with a particular company only to be replaced, due to an auto-refresh command, with another advertisement associated with another company, such as a competing company.
Not only can the auto-refresh command be a waste of advertising budget as described in the above-mentioned scenarios, but it can be a wasted opportunity to use that advertising budget to target other users. Accordingly, it would be desirable to identify web pages that auto-refresh their advertisement impressions. It is difficult, however, to separate an auto-refresh command of a webpage from user behavior (e.g., selecting a reload button). For example, the auto-refreshing of a webpage does not generate an identifying signal that the advertisement can transmit back to the advertiser. In addition, the source code corresponding to the webpage can generally not be inspected as the source code may be obfuscated, whether intentionally or otherwise, to hide such commands.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods, systems, and media for identifying automatically refreshed advertisements. More particularly, it is desirable to provide an advertiser with information relating to auto-refreshed advertisements, such as an indication of advertisement budget spent on auto-refreshed advertisement information.